One tip - if you do buy X-Plane, get it on disc because the official X-Plane server is painfully slow.

Purchase and Downloading:

Purchased yesterday at 0900hrs as I had a busy day with other stuff I decided to go for the direct download, Chris was right as it took around 4 hrs to download then there were the updates which took about an hour and a half so by 14.30hrs the installation was complete. One aspect of downloading X-Plane 11 was that I was given a choice of which countries to install, so I chose All of North America and Canada as well as the whole of Europe, that is where all my flying in FSX takes me. I if I later decide I want to have Australia then I can go and download it but being given the choice is extremely helpful, not to mention the saving of disk space you can make especially if there are areas you do not or never will fly to. At the moment it has taken up 26.4GB on my disk which is peanuts really but just wait until the addons appear!!

As I had previously used the demo version and had deleted it X-Plane did not create a folder to store everything in so I just let it all go onto the desktop where it created a number of folders and other things after that I then created a new folder naming it X-Plane 11 and stuffed the whole lot in there.

Running the sim:

First of all I do not as yet have any addons and am just using the sim as it is out of the box.

Started X-Plane 11 and set up all the normal things you do after installing a new game then set up my joystick functions, I also have CH Throttle Quadrant which is a godsend when wanting more levers for particular functions. One annoying thing I have noticed (and yet to get around) was that I selected 2 levers for left and right brakes but when I went into flying the same aircraft much later the brakes no longer worked (even though I had saved it) reloaded my saved configuration but no........... still did not work so now using just one button on my joystick for brakes.

Flying the aircraft seemed a bit strange, not like FSX at all so need to see how I can get the controls to respond in the way I like them. Found that the rudders are too sensitive and if not careful you can career down the runway like a drunken pilot!! Also wish that the elevator trim could be assigned to the mouse button as I have in FSX (FSUIPC). Took off from East Midlands to fly to Nottingham Airport VFR and just approaching it my engine cut, a quick glance inside showed all temps normal and had to force land, only then did I notice that I had not applied Carburetor Heat so think that may have been the source of my woes. Frame rate wise I cannot yet compare until I have such things as Orbx True Earth installed or even addon airports nevertheless, it is running and that is all that counts for now.

Reflections from the glass windows is a bit of a nuisance especially at night although I guess when you fly more often I suppose it will not be noticed that much, if there were settings for that I would reduce it, going to have to read the .

Night time is a sheer joy, so different from that of FSX with Orbx lighting, it is by far much better and even the landing lights when approaching the runway give an added bit of realism to flying, on an outside view the rotating red beacon can be seen moving around and does not flash like FSX does.

Verdict:

This is not a verdict on whether X-Plane is a better platform than other flight sims but how I feel about it after only using it for one evening.

Bearing in mind that I have only ever flown FS9 followed by FSX, X-Plane is a completely different platform to which I am used to, it will take time for me to adjust and adapt to the different way X-Plane works, I doubt even if you could make adjustments to any files be it aircraft or sim as you could do with FSX but with being a 64bit application as is P3d then it is certainly a bonus for simmers.

Overall, I am happy with the purchase and do not regret buying it, I have a lot to learn in using this platform to get the best possible results from it both performance wise and graphically but no doubt I will pick up a few tips to help me along.

Regards
Nigel.

I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

Hi Dave, try the demo first and see how you like it, the default scenery could be a lot better but if you compare that to FSX Default scenery XP is way ahead.

Secondly I have been searching for ways to obtain better regional scenery (rather than going payware except for Orbx true Earth Sceneries when they become available). There was one I came across which is excellent but.............when you watch the videos on YouTube on how to install, to my mind there is quite a bit of messing about and at my age I don't really want to bother.

Thirdly, I have only just stumbled onto a great free scenery for Europe from simHeaven and one that I am currently downloading covering Europe, not dissimilar from Orthophotos. Well worth a look. So will report back once I have tried it. This is where I came across it with pictures!

Hi Nigel,
Impressive screen shots.
It concerned me somewhat, that the scenery enhancements need a lot of decision making; ZL16....19, VFR Aerials, photoscenery, a wide selection of add-on libraries.
Perhaps it's not any more complex than FSX enhancements once you get used to it. I'll go back and look at all those menu tabs in detail.
Please keep us informed of your experiences!

Ok, as yet I have not installed the simHeaven X Europe simply because of the recommendation to run it to its' best configuration: Hardware with graphic card 8 GB VRAM and memory 32 GB RAM

Since I do not have these then my thinking is that I don't believe that I would reap any benefit by installing it and even if I did and dropped my settings, it may not be as good as in the pictures though I do have it downloaded (came as a rar file).

My intention is now to use Orthophotos, I have watched instructional videos on You Tube and now feel confident about trying it out. Have a lot on at present but will report back although this may be in about a weeks time.

Regards
Nigel.

I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

Hi Nigel. I am watching your thread with great interest. I've also been watching some of the videos on YT. I'm still using FS9 which was reinstalled on a new pc last year and which I still enjoy largely because of the add ons from CBFS. My old pc, which I still have, would not have been capable of running FSX so I never moved on. I'm not sure how well the new one would run XP11 although it meets or exceeds the minimum spec. I'll probably d/l the demo and give it a try. Thanks for posting your impressions Nigel. EricT

I'm also trying to define my 64 bit path, and despite having a lot of FSX payware I'm leaning towards XP-11. The demo runs well on my new PC, and even FSX looks stunning with most of the sliders over to the right. My current thinking is to move over to XP-11 but retaining FSX for a few aircraft that only work in that sim.

I've found 180 freeware Brazilian airports courtesy of "Ruifo", plus Paulo Ricardo's Mega São Paulo is available for XP-11, so my scenery needs are pretty much met. Add in a traffic program, a payware 757/767, MD-88 and EMB-110 and that's about it (famous last words, I'll probably spend a fortune again ). I'll make the final decision when my new SSD arrives, but XP-11 is the most likely outcome.

Thanks for posting your impressions, it helps a lot.

TTFN

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this. – Terry Pratchett